FW: Harris and Horsemanship

["Maryanne Stroud Gabbani" <maryanne@ratbusters.net>]

I can't imagine this happening today, and not just because all the horses are that much more fit. When was this? I think that the rules may have changed somewhat.

 

Maryanne Stroud Gabbani
Cairo, Egypt
maryanne@ratbusters.net
www.ratbusters.net

-----Original Message-----
From: CMNewell [mailto:reshan@deyr.ultranet.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2001 1:36 AM
To: ridecamp@endurance.net
Subject: RC: Harris and Horsemanship

More from "The Blood of the 
Arab":

        

"Frank 
Hopkins says that a good horseman is one who can accomplish the task set out for 
himself and the horse without any injury to the horse. Let us consider this 
statement carefully only as it applies to endurance or trail rides of from 100 
miles, with from 175 to 200 pounds up, to 300 miles, with 200 to 245 pounds 
up.

        

"No one 
could win one of those rides under the rules if his horse had suffered 
any injury as a result of the ride. This makes for horsemanship.Whenever 
anything happens to a horse that makes it apparent he cannot continue without 
injury to himself, he is ordered out by the judges. Among those whose horses 
finish, there is usually offered a prize to the rider who finishes and who in 
the opinion of the judges has shown the best horsemanship. This is not 
necessarily given to the person who wins the ride, but to the one who takes the 
best care of his mount and uses the best judgement in riding, in other words, by 
his care of the horse and by good riding gets everything out of his mount 
possible without injury to the 
horse...

        

"At 
Colorado Springs a few years ago I had intended riding the 300 Mile Ride on El 
Sabok, an Arabian stallion owned by the United States Remount and the only Arab 
entered.When I arrived I was very much chagrined to find the stallion, that had 
been cared for and ridden by a local cowboy, had developed a bad case of thrush 
without his knowing it. In fact, no one but myself knew it. Discovering it the 
day after my arrival, it was a very simple thing to withdraw the horse and say 
nothing. It did not seem necessary to call attention to the fact that he had a 
bad case of thrush and discredit his trainer. I would just say that he was lame 
and let it go at that. When the experts tried to locate the lameness and could 
not, I forgave the cowboy and very nearly won the prize for the best 
horsemanship.

        

"When 
the boys from Fort Riley learned my horse was lame, they offered to let me ride 
any of their horses; there were seven of them...almost everyone seemed anxious 
to let me have a 
horse...

        

"Now 
the amusing thing about it all was that by telling everybody his horse was not 
good enough to ride, I soon lost my popularity. However, I kept harping on the 
theme. It seemed to me the horses, in spite of the fact that they had been 
picked and trained, could not, no matter how good their riders were, accomplish 
the task without injury and I knew the judges well enough to know they would put 
them out. Well, at noon the third day there was not a horse left; everybody had 
dropped out. Query of the judges, what to do? One of the judges very solemnly 
said, 'Well, I guess there is only one award we can make, that of best 
horsemanship to Mr. Harris. He knew his horse was lame when nobody else could 
discover where. He told us none of the horses were good enough to go through. So 
I guess he has shown the best horsemanship.' 
"

                                               
--CMNewell